Copia Global secures $20 million in funding round led by Enza Capital

Copia Global has raised $20 million in a Series C extension round led by Enza Capital. Other participants in the funding round include global private bank LGT, investment firm Goodwell Investments, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), German financial service provider DEG, Swiss impact fund Elea, Perivoli Foundation and Sorenson Foundation.

Based on the fact Enza Capital played a prominent role in the funding round, John Lazar co-founder of Enza Capital will be joing Copia’s board. John Lazar, ex-CEO of Metaswitch, a Microsoft subsidiary, co-founded Enza Capital in 2019. He is also the Chair at Raspberry Pi Foundation and an angel investor and mentor in the U.K. and Africa, with over 40 pre-seed and seed investments.

Including the $50 million it raised in January 2022, Copia Global has raised over $120 million since inception. Launched in Kenya in 2013, Copia Global harnesses mobile technologies, a network of local Agents and proprietary Copia Logistics to reach a market that formal retail and Western e-commerce models cannot.  Copia brings quality products at the lowest market prices delivered at no cost to thousands of customers every day.

The firm takes pride in its strong network comprising more than 50,000 agents, all of whom are small business proprietors located in towns and villages throughout Kenya. These agents have collectively catered to the needs of over 2 million consumers.

Though Copia experienced annual growth of 100% for the last couple of years, emphasizing scale and swift expansion as critical objectives for profitability, it announced that it was shutting down its Ugandan operations and suspending its expansion in Africa in April 2023, in response to to the prevailing economic downturn and constrained capital markets.

“We recognized in our capital markets environment that we didn’t want to continue the Ugandan operation, which was a great market and opportunity. Without the capital to get it all the way to profitability, it made sense to hold off there. Then, we looked at the Kenyan operation and knew we had to streamline Kenya as well,” said founder and co-chair Tracey Turner. “And our shift to focusing on the digital now coming from the fact that our customers have digitized so quickly means we needed to change how we operate in Kenya. And so we’ve done that to focus the business on the digital relationship with the customer, which is quite different from what it was just a year ago.”

Speaking with TechCrunch, Lazar acknowledges that his enduring professional connection with the Copia team played a role in Enza Capital’s decision to support the Kenyan e-commerce platform. Over the years, Copia has left a positive impression on Enza Capital, particularly with its robust fulfillment network and the growing trend of digital adoption among consumers.

According to Lazar, “I’ve admired this company for a long time, and we think the conditions are right. E-commerce companies are facing some difficulties at the moment, but the kind of push towards digitization feels like an inflection point for us and it just changes the game on unit economics and efficiencies. So when Tracey called us to say they had this internal round and they’d love to bring an additional partner in, we were super excited to join.”

In a separate but related announcement, Copia Global has entered into a strategic partnership with Visa, a global leader in digital payments. This collaboration aims to offer digital financial services to middle to low-income consumers in Kenya, marking a significant step in enhancing Copia’s digital capabilities and expanding Visa’s reach to the last global frontier.

This 5-year partnership will introduce a digital wallet that seamlessly integrates shopping and financial services into a user-friendly platform within the Copia super-app. This innovative solution allows consumers not only to shop and make payments but also to engage in savings and borrowing activities.

Through the digital wallet, customers gain the flexibility to fund their accounts, purchase household goods, and make payments through various convenient methods. The partnership will further provide access to a range of financial services, including features such as “Buy Now Pay Later” credit, “Save Now Buy Later” savings, the opportunity to build a credit score, and the utilization of Visa’s loyalty solutions.

One notable aspect of this collaboration is its facilitation of diaspora remittances. The partnership with Visa enables individuals from the diaspora to directly remit funds into the Copia wallet, empowering them to support purchases of essential goods and services for their families back home. This cross-border financial inclusion aspect adds another layer of accessibility and convenience to the suite of services offered through the Copia and Visa partnership.